US and China locked in Naval Arms Race'the belly of the eagle is not as roomy as the belly of the dragon'Eric LaMont Gregory

While the current US Administration and Congress sabre rattle over money we have already spent, China is expanding its navy at a staggering rate. Unless, this administration and the congress, wake up to the fact that we are in the midst of an arms race, China will increasing control the strategic sea lanes, the so-called straights and narrows of naval power. There is a naval arms race going on between the US and Chinese navies. China is expanding its navy at a rate unprecedented in peacetime. An incident at sea in the near future, like the recent one between Japan and China, is inevitable. Ultimate control in China lies with a military dictatorship, the People's Liberation Army, and it is very ambitious.The Peoples Republic of China already has the largest air force on Earth. Americans should remember that just before 9/11, a People's Liberation Air Force Jet wing-rammed one of the most sophisticated US spy planes over its territorial waters and forced it to land on a island controlled by China off its southern coast. The US spy plane, with remote electromagnetic spectrum scanning and reading capabilities, was captured by China who refused to return it, until they had an opportunity to evalute the advanced sensing technology on the American military plane.This is the same Chinese military that recently cut the US military off from certain strategic materials needed in US military missle guidance systems. (see: China flexes its rare earth muscle/China) The events of 9/11 allowed US and Chinese officials to reach a face saving, for the US, agreement outside the glare of public scrutiny concerning the spy plane and the technology it carried.Its a sad state of affairs, Mr President and Mr Speaker, when America finds itself in hock to a military dictatorship that is on course to become, save the nuclear threat, the largest and most powful economic and military power on this planet.